Wednesday, April 14, 2010

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / April 14, 2010) – Communist rebels on Wednesday owned up the killing of a government soldier after he resisted arrest in the southern Filipino province of Compostela Valley, a spokesman for the New People’s Army said.

Marcella Valiente, of the NPA’s Armando Dumandan Command, said rebels killed Army Sergeant Marlon Salva over the weekend after trying to evade arrest in the village of Kamantangan in Montevista town.

“Army Sergeant Marlon Salva, a Military Intelligence operative and also a detachment commander of the 72nd Infantry Battalion was killed after he tried to evade arrest and gave battle to a New People's Army team tasked to apprehend him,” Valiente said.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division condemned the killing and insisted Salva was unarmed and on his way to meet with village leaders.

Valiente denied the military report. “As Sergeant Salva approached the checkpoint, the NPA team manning the roadblock flagged him down. But instead of heeding the order to stop, he sped away and drew his firearm in an attempt to shoot it out with the NPA team. Sergeant Salva's hostile action forced the NPA blocking force to fire on him leading to his death,” the rebel spokesman said.

Valiente said rebels recovered the soldier’s two .45-caliber pistols and several identification cards and mission orders signed by Captain Glenn Loreto Caballero, of the Army’s 103rd Military Intelligence Company.

“The document from the intelligence units of the 10th Infantry Division seized on Sergeant Salva's person confirms that he is not simply an ordinary detachment commander, but also an active intelligence operative. He was actively involved in combat and intelligence operations with the 3rd Special Forces Battalion-Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was due to his active involvement in armed counter-revolutionary acts that revolutionary authorities have ordered his arrest,” Valiente said.

The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines which is waging a secessionist war the past decades. (Mindanao Examiner)